Essendon’s season-opening game against North Melbourne was being overshadowed on Friday by the re-igniting of allegations that suspended coach James Hird was deliberately scapegoated over the supplemewnts scandal to protect the AFL brand.

Speaking in a TV interview screened on Thursday night, Hird’s wife Tania referred to the explosive allegation that AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou tipped off the Bombers that they were being investigated.

Demetriou has vehemently denied the claim, first made last July.

After months trying to move on from the affair, an exasperated Bombers chairman Paul Little said on Friday that the board would now meet to discuss its next move regarding Hird, who is serving a 12-month suspension which runs until late August.

“It’s well documented now that we’ve been working incredibly hard, right across all facets of the club for the last six to nine months to turn the club around, focus on the future and move away from the dispute of last year,” Little told Triple M Radio.

“We’ve had many opportunities to re-engage in the dispute but we’ve obviously not taken them up. So it is disappointing. The timing last night is certainly less than helpful. Up until the events of the last 24 hours we believed James was acting and responding to our requests in a positive way.

“The club will need to meet now to determine how we go forward in relation to the James Hird issue and probably the broader group which surrounds James.”

Tania Hird alleged on the ABC’s 7.30 Report on Thursday that former Essendon chairman David Evans told her husband in a telephone conversation on July 25 – the day before Essendon “self-reported” about the supplemets program to the AFL – not to mention the matter to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA). She said she was listening on speaker phone and took notes.

“David admitted that he said to James go into ASADA and tell the whole truth but don’t say what Andrew Demetriou told us,’’ she said, referring to the claim that the outgoing AFL chief executive had “tipped off” Essendon about the Australian Crime Commission’s report into corruption in sport.Re-opening old wounds, she said the AFL was determined that Hird be suspended over the supplements scandal.

“I definitely think James was the scapegoat - in fact we were told that James being the scapegoat was non-negotiable,” she said. “It wasn’t about the integrity of the game, by any stretch of the imagination. It was all about the AFL brand.”

Hird’s lawyer Stephen Amendola also repeated his criticisms of how the AFL ran the disciplinary process that led to the suspension.

“They looked to behave like a bunch of cashed-up bogans who thought they could do what they wanted,” Amendola said. “(It was) just a complete failure of process and it fundamentally arises from the (AFL) commission structure.

“The commission is the investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury. “The idea that they don’t think there’s something wrong with that is frankly astounding.”

Demetriou again refuted Tania Hird’s allegation that he had alerted the Bombers about the supplements scandal.

“She’s not the first one that’s said that,” he told Fairfax Radio. “And you’ve heard my response to that. The response is pretty simple - it’s impossible to tip off anyone when I wasn’t privy to the information. I didn’t have access to it.”

Speaking on Triple M, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire predicted that Hird would not coach Essendon again, despite the Bombers club great saying earlier this week he was counting down the days until he returned to the job.

“It’s more about the camp around James Hird and the advice he’s getting,” said McGuire.

“Clearly that advice is contrary to the advice that the chairman of the Essendon football club, who appointed James for two years, has been giving and the direction the club wants to go in.”

Demetriou declined to be drawn on whether Hird’s position at Essendon had become untenable.

“That’s a decision for the club, but you can hear in Paul (Little’s) voice there an immense amount of frustration,” he said.

“... the club wants to move forward. They’ve come off a horrendous 2013, they’re working diligently to go forward, they want to start planning for 2014.